Emotions - Day 3: Today I want to explore the emotion of Fear and what it looks like on the face of both Men and Women. This one the generation had a lot of trouble creating the emotion on the faces of the subjects. I tried two different prompts: A close up of a man/woman expressing the emotion of Fear A close up of a man/woman screaming in Fear ------------------------------------------------------------------ Fear is a powerful emotion that can also play an important role in survival. When you face some sort of danger and experience fear, you go through what is known as the fight or flight response. Your muscles become tense, your heart rate and respiration increase, and your mind becomes more alert, priming your body to either run from the danger or stand and fight. This response helps ensure that you are prepared to deal with threats in your environment effectively. Expressions of this type of emotion can include: Facial expressions: such as widening the eyes and pulling back the chin Body language: attempts to hide or flee from the threat Physiological reactions: such as rapid breathing and heartbeat Of course, not everyone experiences fear in the same way. Some people may be more sensitive to fear, and certain situations or objects may be more likely to trigger this emotion. Fear is the emotional response to an immediate threat. We can also develop a similar reaction to anticipated threats or even our thoughts about potential dangers, and this is what we generally think of as anxiety. Social anxiety, for example, involves an anticipated fear of social situations. Some people, on the other hand, actually seek out fear-provoking situations. Extreme sports and other thrills can be fear-inducing, but some people seem to thrive and even enjoy such feelings. Repeated exposure to a feared object or situation can lead to familiarity and acclimation, which can reduce feelings of fear and anxiety. This is the idea behind exposure therapy, in which people are gradually exposed to the things that frighten them in a controlled and safe manner. Eventually, feelings of fear begin to decrease. ------------------------------------------------------------------- When we look at the faces and the prompt used the first thing I see in the majority of the faces is more akin to what I think we all see as anger especially in the man. In this case I feel that the bottom left of the top left panel is the best. His eyes are wide his chin is pulled back and he has the expression of someone who just saw or experienced something they are fearful of. Is this perhaps another case of men feeling they cannot truly show their emotions leading to a more angry expression? In the case of the women though we see something very very different. In each of the panels it almost feels a progression of her fear in the expressions. Different levels of fear maybe? The right panel feels like she has gone from a mid level of fear(Left Panel) to a fear so deep it is encroaching on abject terror. Her head is tilted back, her eyes wide, the chin pulled in as she screams into the void. Again I feel this is another case of women being more in touch with their emotions and expressing them more openly. What makes you afraid? Do you agree or disagree with my assessment of the images? I'd love to hear your thoughts.